In sports car racing circles, Eversley is ubiquitous

Today, Ryan Eversley is best known as a full-time racer in the IMSA Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge, a series based around essentially showroom stock rules and (for the most part) racing versions of vehicles that the general public sees on the road all the time. He races for Ontario-based Compass360 Racing in a Honda Civic Si that the general public can buy for as little as $25,000. The car is then stripped of its interior, given a roll cage and beefed up for racing purposes at a cost that far exceeds the cost of the donor car.

However, that’s not all he has up his sleeve. Like Savoir-Faire, the antagonist of the Klondike Kat cartoons that often aired alongside of Tennessee Tuxedo back in the 1960’s, Eversley is almost everywhere you look in American sports-car racing. In addition to driving the Civic, Eversley has competed this season part-time in Pirelli World Challenge’s GTS-class in a Subaru Impreza WRX-STI (the previous generation car) for Compass360 Racing. At Lime Rock, due to the split race format, Eversley raced both the Street Tuner and Grand Sport races. Despite driving a car that he had only previously raced in Pirelli World Challenge, Eversley and teammate Kyle Gimple earned a second-place finish in his Impreza’s first-ever race in the series.

After the race, Eversley was overjoyed with his Subaru’s performance.

“It was awesome. The car was so good,” Eversley said in a somewhat crowded transporter after the race. “This is a perfect track for the Subaru and the all-wheel-drive. It was real easy to go from 26th up to third. The car never faded and I was just picking people off left and right.”

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Eversley was also scheduled to make his debut in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship’s Prototype Challenge (PC) class at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca last month. However, teammate Doug Bielefeld crashed their car in practice and ended their weekend. In the past, Eversley has also raced in the former Rolex Series and American Le Mans Series, mostly in Porsches.

While he claims that he has never been offered the opportunity to drive in a NASCAR-sanctioned road race (yet), Eversley also works with NASCAR teams to help them better prepare for the few road races in NASCAR-sanctioned series. He is the road racing driving coach for Kenzie Ruston, a 22-year old up and coming racer in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for Ben Kennedy Racing (the series races at Virginia International Raceway and Watkins Glen International, while last year, they competed at Road Atlanta on the undercard of the 1000 mile Petit Le Mans endurance race). He is also called upon to give input on setups, most notably to Camping World Truck Series teams last year when they made their first trip to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park for the Chevy Silverado 350k.

Outside of the race car, you’re likely to find Eversley in three places. One is on Twitter, where he spends hours chatting with race fans and fellow drivers.

“I love the interaction; I love talking about racing,” Eversley said at Lime Rock Park. “I can talk about racing until my face turns blue. I just love racing in general. Formula One, Monster trucks, you name it, I’d watch anything. I’ve had a really great time tweeting with fans in general about NASCAR and that has helped carry some fans over to our series.”

While at Lime Rock, Eversley met up with a group of NASCAR fans who follow him on Twitter that were at their very first sports car race. Like many newcomers, they were amazed at the general access that fans get (any ticket is typically a paddock pass as well and had a great time.

He can also be found practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) at locations in the Atlanta area. It’s a hobby that competitor and good friend Andy Lally talked him into doing. Eversley describes NJJ as “a very fun thing to do and…a great stress reliever.

Finally, Eversley works extensively with the Children’s Tumor Foundation (CTF), which serves as his primary sponsor in the CTSC and in many of his previous appearances in the Rolex Series. The Children’s Tumor Foundation is dedicated to curing Neurofibromatosis (NF), which is something of a blanket term for a number of different diseases that ultimately lead to tumors (benign or malignant). Those tumors can lead to a number of additional issues like blindness or mobility issues.

Eversley’s next scheduled race is at Kansas Speedway on Saturday afternoon. The race will not be televised.